Category Archives: _FALL 2013

It’s all set to receive our Spring 2014 students next week and now to close up another wonderful semester check out the design studio final boards of our Fall 2013 students from Texas A&M University and Clemson/PennState University.

During the Netherlands field studies trip our students were asked by their professor Ivan Blasi, to prepare daily photo report and to write their reflexions and about the places and architecture they have seen. Here you can find some of them.

Here is a ‘silly’ picture of the Texas A&M and Penn State group. Our friendship has grown significantly over the semester, and I feel blessed to be studying abroad with them._ photo by Ana Escobar_Texas A&M

DAY 1_ Ana Escobar | Daniel García

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DAY 2_ Melyna Montoya | Misael Gonzalez

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DAY 3_ Callie Friesenhahn | Astrid Santos

The bridges in Rotterdam stood out as the cities trademark architecture because they are the most recognizable things you see when arriving to the city. The Erasmus Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge across the Nieuwe Maas linking the northern and southern regions of Rotterdam. The NAi by Jo Coenen concerns itself in a variety of ways with architecture, urban design, and spatial planning. Nearby the NAi, the Sonneveld House, built in the Nieuwe Bouwen style, is furnished with furniture and materials reflecting the times. Later on that day we saw the Witte Huis built during the Art Nouveau which reflected some of the American office buildings built around the same time. The most memorable of the day had to be the the Cube Houses by Piet Blom for its high density housing which still left sufficient space on the ground floor. Blom tilted the cube of a conventional house 45 degrees, and rested it upon a hexagon-shaped pylon. Beautiful day in Rotterdam.

DAY 4_Michael Koernig | Christopher Nilles

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DAY 5_Chris Thackerey | Tyler Larsen

DAY 6_Elijah Wood | Jeff

In Utrecht we were impressed by the colorful application of materials that work to graphically capture the architect’s ideas. The hospital building located nearby was impressive and brought in a lot of natural light to the inside of the
building through the perforations in the facade. This light was complimented by a large atrium that incorporated a void that encompassed a “grand” staircase centrally located within the atrium. The way this staircase crossed through the atrium was quite captivating. The Mecanoo building located on the campus was broken up into three areas; sea, desert and jungle. This bridge that was built adjacent to the Schroeder house interrupts Rietveld’s intended views from the Schroeder house. This image shows where deliveries could be dropped off to the house for different daily needs during the time. The six chimneys are a brutalist form, but are softened through materiality, as the facades begin to rust. To prevent waste a trench is hidden around the base that captures the rust runoff and allows for drainage away from the building. The Schroeder house is a perfect example of Dutch interpretation of the modernist movement. Dutch modernism, essentially championed by Rietveld is often referred to De Stijl, characterized by the use of the primary colors; red, yellow, and blue, and also other monochrome colors working in white and black with various tones in
between.